Durgapur

Departure at 0500 Odometer at 30852

It was chill when I left the room in the morning. Drove a while with the windows rolled almost all the way up. Even at 0800 it was still nippy, with the wind whipping in at 100kmph !!!

The drive today was tiring. Needed legs working most of the way. Can be divided into distinct parts.

First was the awesome road from Puri all the way till just past Cuttack. Got onto the highway, cruised comfortably. Very little traffic, even when I went thru towns.

Then came the absolutely terrible roads between Cuttack and Balasore, where work was being done in the most unorganized manner possible. Bits and pieces had been done. Every couple of kilometers the diversions happened. You picked up speed and there was the next diversion. The side roads were full of holes and unmarked speed breakers.  And, bikers in the middle of the road.

The next stretch was good. This lasted a couple of hours. Road was concreted most part. From Past Balasore all the way into West Bengal, till I reached the turnoff towards Durgapur. The road I had to take cuts inland away from the road that goes to Kolkata.

The stretch to Durgapur was single lane, national highway. It went thru all the well populated little towns of WB around Midnapore. Just as I was settling to this type of road, Maps did it's trick for the run on me. Maps took it upon itself to give me some more excitement for the run by taking me thru the  paddy field territory - the internals of the country side. It had obviously found a road that cut time down by a couple of minutes over the main road. As I said, cannot very well check if a genuine looking turn is genuine or not. Quality of road was much better, though extremely narrow, and curvy. 

Got turned on to the final approach about 40kilometers from Durgapur. This was the road I should have come by, IF maps had not done the twist.

And, just when I was thinking hotel, food, shower, and so on, promptly came to a dead halt. They have these narrow bridges, which are single lane. No regulators. So, if the guy at the head of your driving direction is a wimp, you are stuck a while. There were two of these.

Then came the railway crossings, manned by the standard railways guy. And, as all such manned crossings go, when the gate lifted the mob moved. There were three of these. May have been the same rail track. Fortunately, only the first caused a stop.

Then came the icing on the cake. Found as I came up to the problem that it was caused by the road being laid. During peak time traffic, with the road being single lane, one can just imagine. 

Traffic was seriously backed up.  Did a dirt track a bit. Then did what works all over the country. Saw a local bus inching into the middle. Tucked in behind the bus hammering his way thru. Got thru in possibly a third of the time it would have taken if I had been a nice guy.

Checked in to Peerless Inn. Decent hotel, just off the highway. Then had lunch. Dal, Bhindi fry and Rice. Was hungry. Ordered of the cuff. Did not see menu. Found when the bill came that food is expensive here. Two meals at Sterling equal one here. Checked the menu in the room. There are three standard prices. Vegetarian items are at 291. Meat items are at 321. Fancy Items are at 441.

Went for a walk early evening to get some water. And, stretch legs. 

Tit bit for the day, that will make my kids furious. May not be as furious as the Sterling guys when the find the packet at the end of the year. Had ordered sandwiches at Sterling to carry as breakfast along the way. Stuck it in the fridge to keep it from spoiling overnight. It should stay there unless some guest opens the fridge. With winter coming, little hope !!